Tracy Geneviève Amare is too young to have direct knowledge of MTV’s heyday. The Los Angeles-based producer, rapper, and singer was born in 2004, by which point the network’s sidelining of music was very much underway. Laguna Beach, The Ashlee Simpson Show, and Pimp My Ride all debuted that year, joining a programming slate already stuffed with reality fare. By the time Amare was 6, TRL had been cancelled, and the network had dropped “Music Television” from its logo. In light of those facts, the title of Amare’s new EP, Q: From Where Do Our Primal Instincts Originate? A: MTV!, is telling. A reference to Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!—the 1978 album that preceded MTV’s launch and Devo’s iconic reign on the network—it serves as both a layered bit and an intro to Amare’s time-warped style.

As Portraits of Tracy, Amare makes shapeshifting songs of self-realization and self-expression. Across her first three records, Kanye and Tyler, the Creator have been clear touchstones: Amare loves hard drums and lush instrumentation that strobes and gleams, and her melodic raps voice flexes and fears with equal intensity. Her new EP also foregrounds a love of R&B, dream pop, and alt rock, genres she uses to showcase more theatrical vocals and arrangements. The self-produced record, her shortest and most tightly constructed project yet, reintroduces her as a character actor committed to cinematic scope. Listening to it feels like watching an ace revue, each song a distinct little drama.

Amare brings a busker’s sense of immediacy to these songs. Her previous work skewed diaristic, the longing lyrics and hazy beats suggesting a bedroom refuge. Q…A… brings to mind open spaces: a town square, an amphitheatre. She packs the record’s brisk 20 minutes with belts, yelps, and croons—every emotion big, each sound charged. “This Song May or May Not Be About an Alt-Right Influencer” surges with venom, Amare demanding the imminent demise of the fash class. “Die!” she purrs over a propulsive punk arrangement, her voice dripping with glee as she repeats the word like she’s twisting a knife.

Highlight “Caught in a Jam” uses a different tack to approach a dark subject. Its lyrics describe a sketchy, druggy nightmare, but you’d never guess that sonically. Jaunty drums, funky synth chords, a chunky bassline, and multiple guitar parts barrel forward, Amare topping it all with liquid vocals that swing between nonchalance and reverie. She even makes time for levity, joking “Now I’m the dancing queen/F-f–far from 17” as the drug kicks in, and inserting a twee bridge about an astronaut fighting robots. It all builds to a screwball reversal: an attacker being downed by a kick to the balls. “He was caught in a jam!” she shrieks during the psychedelic outro. Grooves, ABBA, wit—this song has it all.

Maximalism isn’t Portraits of Tracy’s only trick. “Royal Courts (Great Misfortune)” is dynamic, opening with soft acoustic guitar strums and delicate coos that erupt into a full arrangement; it then subtly winds down before ratcheting up once again. The same goes for her cover of “My Life is Loving You,” a ballad originally by Rose Banks (and also covered by Sylvester). Amare maintains the original’s aching heart, but adds in gospel-infused vocal runs and a thundering outro—tweaks that rev up the soulful cut into a tempest.

Although she doesn’t rap on this EP, it would be a mistake to think of Q…A… as a rock rebrand; for one thing, Amare namechecks the fizzy cloud rap of SpaceGhostPurpp and crew on “Halli Step / Raider Klan Shit.” She’s leaning further into fluidity, refining her magpie vision by stretching her voice to match her restless production. Wherever primal instincts come from, it takes focus and vim to harness them like this.